New Year's traditions around the world

New Year’s may be the most widespread holiday in the world, with hundreds of cultures and millions of individuals marking it in some way, even if on different days. Since ancient and even prehistoric eras, people have attempted to monitor the passage of time and organize their lives based on the progress of the year. The start of a new year came to symbolize a time of rebirth—a fresh start at health, happiness, and prosperity—and an escape from the troubles of the past year. Accordingly, cultures around the world have devised their own ways of marking this regular yet momentous event each year.

Observations of the beginning of a new year may occur on different days, depending on the type of calendar people are using. In modern times, most celebrants observe January 1 as the start of a new year and typically begin their parties, ceremonies, or other events on the previous day, December 31. Common New Year’s traditions include festivals, fireworks, food, and romance. Some people create their own events, such as ball drops or symbolic or superstitious behaviors, in the hopes of gaining luck or simply having fun. People also dedicate time to reflecting upon the year that is ending and making plans or resolutions to help ensure the best results in the coming year.

Background

The New Year’s celebration is rooted in humanity’s fascination with time. Some scholars believe that serious attempts to track the passage of time may be traced back more than twenty thousand years. An example of this belief is the Ishango bone, a heavily notched bone discovered by archaeologists in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The humanmade, regularly spaced notches in this bone may represent tally marks, and some scholars have theorized it is the earliest known attempt at a prehistoric calendar.

Regardless of the exact nature of this artifact, historians have discovered that timekeeping was of significant interest to early peoples and civilizations. Much like the people of modern times, these earlier people wanted to learn about how time passed. In particular, they wanted to find patterns of organization and measurement that would allow them to schedule activities and anticipate regular events.

In ancient times, various groups created their own calendars, which were often extremely influential in their agricultural practices; for example, understanding the seasons and predictable changes in the weather allowed farmers to plan and plant their crops at the most effective times to ensure the longest and best growing seasons. Early calendars also impacted other aspects of societies, including governments, cultural ceremonies, and religious practices.

Over thousands of years, many groups of people invented their own calendars, but, in general, these calendars were not standardized. Various leaders, thinkers, religious figures, and other members of a civilization might approach the measurement of time in almost any way that occurred to them or suited their purposes. In many advanced societies, people discovered the correlation between the passage of time and the movement across the sky of objects such as the Sun, the Moon, and stars. For example, the Sun appears to cross the sky once per day, and its path across the sky and the duration of its journey from one horizon to the other differs in predictable ways at different times of year.

In many societies, astronomers and astrologers became important and high-ranking luminaries, often creating calendars and advising kings, queens, nobles, priests, and other top-level people. Astronomers searched the sky and attempted to map the heavenly bodies and their motions through the year. Meanwhile, astrologers studied these findings and theorized about how the movement of these heavenly bodies might affect nature and humans. (In modern times, astronomy remains an extremely important facet of science, while astrology has been largely relegated to pseudoscience or entertainment.)

Although the perspective of early calendar-makers varied significantly, many settled upon similar means of measurement: days, months, and years. A day was relatively easy to track. Months could be determined in a wide variety of ways, however, leading to significantly different definitions of a year. Many popular early calendar systems were based on the movement of the Moon, which came to be known as lunar calendars. Meanwhile, calendars based on the movement of the Sun were called solar calendars. Some systems included aspects of both, such as the complex and detailed calendars devised by the Mayan culture.

One result of this extensive variety was that different cultures observed the beginnings of new years on different days. In many systems, the new year began on a different day of each cycle, leading to a lack of consistency. For example, the ancient Babylonians observed the beginning of a new year on the first new moon after the vernal equinox, which is the time when day and night are of equal duration. The ancient Egyptians, meanwhile, observed the start of the new year as the day when the Nile River flooded, and the star Sirius rose in the night sky.

For many cultures, the arrival of the new year—regardless of when exactly it occurred—was a time of great significance. New Year’s Day came to represent a day to let go of the past, particularly problems and negative feelings, and embrace the promise of a fresh start. In some parts of the world, people celebrated that winter would soon be overtaken by spring. The new year also had practical purposes, such as reminding people of the tasks ahead, like preparing for the coming season’s plantings.

In many cultures, this day had a powerful religious overtone, as people sought to thank their deities as well as ask for a new year of prosperity. For example, about four thousand years ago, the Babylonians greeted each new year with an eleven-day festival known as Akitu, in which celebrants honored the god Marduk and his defeat of the evil goddess Tiamat. The events also aligned with important political developments, including the renewal of a king’s reign or designation of a new king and agricultural developments such as preparations for the harvesting of barley.

Many notable developments in timekeeping and calendar invention took place in ancient Rome. Legend holds that Rome’s founder, Romulus, created the first Roman calendar, which began at the vernal equinox and consisted of 304 days divided among ten months, around the eighth century BCE. Later, ruler Numa Pompilius added two new months, for a total of twelve, which seemed to better match the movement of the Sun. However, the system still lacked refinement.

In 46 BCE, Julius Caesar, in consultation with Rome’s top scientists and mathematicians, created the so-called Julian calendar. This calendar started each year on January 1. It set the foundation for the Gregorian calendar—modified by namesake Pope Gregory XIII in 1582—which would become one of the most widely observed calendars in the world in the twenty-first century.

The Julian and Gregorian calendars set the precedent for marking the first day of each new year on January 1. The month name January has a complex past but refers largely to a Roman god, Janus. He was distinctive for having two faces on his head, one able to look forward and one behind, which led to his designation as the god of new beginnings. This symbolism helped instill the idea of New Year’s Day as a celebration, as Romans often marked the occasion with wild parties featuring feasts, decorations, and offerings to Janus in the hopes of gaining his favor and securing good fortunes in the year ahead.

Another major calendar system is based on the lunar model and observed through much of China and other lands. The Chinese Lunar New Year celebration does not occur on a set day every year but rather on the day that marks the second new moon after the winter solstice. This holiday may be celebrated on a range of days, typically in January or February.

Overview

One near-essential theme of the modern New Year’s celebration is the acknowledgement of the past. The holiday may serve as a time to look back on people or experiences of the past year or even earlier. The famous New Year’s song “Auld Lang Syne” (the title may be translated into contemporary English phrases such as “Days Long Ago” or “Times Gone By”) celebrates this process of looking back with sweet sentimentality. Although this song celebrates lasting memories and encourages people to keep up with those they once knew, New Year’s also inevitably includes an element of departure from the past.

People may look back at the previous year with sweet or bittersweet memories, knowing that they must move beyond both. They may also look at negative experiences from the past year and decide to forget these bad memories and associations to make a fresh start. In Myanmar and other largely Buddhist regions, individuals may mark the changing of the year with the Thingyan Water Festival. In this days-long event, people fill the streets with water and sprinklers, and celebrants get soaking wet for the sake of cleansing themselves of the past—as well as, for many, simple fun. In countries such as Ecuador and Colombia, people may mark the coming year by burning scarecrows or sawdust-filled dummies that represent bad memories, enemies, or other negative forces they seek to remove from their future lives. Sometimes, the effect is compounded by a game in which people try to jump over the burning effigies twelve times.

Countless forms of celebration refer in some way to the circular nature of years and time itself, of one period ending and another beginning. Circle symbolism crops up in celebrations worldwide. In the Philippines, people wear clothing decorated with small round polka dots, which are thought to bring good luck. Sometimes, they attempt to eat circular fruits or other foods. In Spain and other Hispanic countries, a popular celebration involves partygoers attempting to fit twelve grapes, the “Twelve Grapes of Luck,” one representing each month of the year, into their mouths before midnight strikes. In the American South, black-eyed peas are a common New Year’s food that is thought to bring prosperity because the round peas somewhat resemble coins. In Greece, people may hang bundles of onions on their door, which some believe will promote fertility.

Foods are the center of many other New Year’s traditions. Many cultures bake special treats for the holiday, some of which contain a surprise, such as a nut, coin, or note. The partygoer who receives the portion with the surprise gets not only the surprise itself but also good luck. Another food-related tradition involves writing wishes for the upcoming year on a small slip of paper and then burning it. By sprinkling the resulting ashes into a drink to be downed at midnight, the celebrant hopes to increase the chances of that wish coming true.

For ancient people, the new year represented a new start for spring, warmth, light, and the fertility of crops. The idea of fertility has stayed closely associated with many New Year’s holiday traditions, some of which are related to love and romance. In North America and other areas, celebrants kiss their significant other at the stroke of midnight. This practice stems from medieval beliefs that the first person one encounters in a new year will set the tone for that year. In Italy, people wear red underwear in hopes of encouraging romance in the new year, while in Argentina, people generally do the same with pink garments.

One popular New Year’s observance transcends national boundaries: making resolutions. A New Year’s resolution is typically a plan or promise to act or refrain from acting, in a certain way in the coming year. Popular resolutions include adopting healthier habits, such as eating moderately or exercising more; acting more charitably; rekindling relationships with family or friends; or finding new romantic relationships. Historians believe that the practice of making resolutions may date back to the ancient Babylonians, who made promises of good behavior to please the gods and gain their blessings for the coming year. Despite the millennia-long history of this practice, making resolutions often proves ineffective, and many people forget or abandon their plans or procrastinate until the following year.

One of the most popular facets of New Year’s has little to do with memories, self-reflection, or sentimentality but rather the basic thrill of a worldwide event bringing change to all people. For millions of celebrants, the most fulfilling event of a New Year’s celebration involves a countdown to the stroke of midnight, often chanted by crowds or demonstrated theatrically. The most famous such countdown takes place yearly at Times Square in New York City, where organizers slowly lower an enormous decorative ball to the ground, with it timed to touch down at exactly midnight. Onlookers at the site and at home watching on television often count the last ten seconds aloud and cheer at the conclusion. Some blow horns, beat pots and pans, or shoot fireworks. Although New York’s ball drop has been going on since 1907 and attracts millions of viewers, other places have organized their own similar events, often with regional variations. Many of these variations are intended to be humorous or reflect important aspects of a local community. A few examples have included pickles, cheese, mushrooms, or even a walleye fish.

Some New Year’s activities may be seen as very unusual or even inappropriate for most other occasions. In Denmark, people may purposely break plates or cups in their homes or outside the homes of family or friends. The sight of broken objects on the first morning of the new year is believed to be a portend of good luck. Danes may also celebrate by jumping off their chairs at midnight to literally “leap” into the new year. In Ireland, people may hit their walls with loaves of bread to dispel harmful spirits from their homes. In Puerto Rico, people may attempt to accomplish the same goal by throwing a bucket of water out of their windows. Other people try to expel unwanted spirits more gently, simply by opening their windows at midnight.

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